Topics City Life

Sewers, Pollution, and Public Health in 19th Century Philadelphia

High Water: Flooding in Philadelphia

Drainage and Sewerage Report, 1853

Dealing with the city’s wastes in the mid-19th century

Oak Lane Reservoir pipeline, 1904

The Water and Drainage History of Philadelphia: A seven-part course

Imagine a Day Without Water

Image shows multicolored trees and a river cutting through them with two bridges visible

Watersheds: Learning to care for and protect our local water resources

William Penn balks at drinking the "mixed drink" offered him: Schuylkill water, mixed with pollution from the upstream sources named. Editorial cartoon by Fred Morgan, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 6, 1899. One of a series of cartoons drawn by Morgan protesting the state of the city's drinking water and trying to encourage the passage of legislation authorizing the construction of a water filtration system.

Half a Century of Clean Water

Map of Philadelphia showing Population in year 1920

Map of Philadelphia showing Population in year 1920

Philadelphia the Manufacturing and Industrial Capital map, 1906

1779 Philadelphia map

1779 Revolutionary War-era map of Philadelphia and environs

Nine visiting nurses ready for work, ca. 1909

Nine visiting nurses ready for work, ca. 1909